Author: Matthew Lombard


  • The Green Planet AR Experience: BBC series-inspired immersive event takes visitors to six Earth biomes

    [A new and popular presence experience has opened for a short run in London, as described below in an abridged version of a Broadcast story followed by more details from XR Today. More images and a 38-second trailer are available in both stories (the trailer is also on YouTube). See also the BBC Studios press release. For a story about a related presence experience on a digital billboard in Piccadilly Circle see coverage in The Evening Standard. –Matthew] Behind the scenes at The Green Planet AR Experience Broadcast takes a tour of the AR-driven spin-off of the BBC NHU series…

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  • Call: Hybrid Workshop: “What is Proprioceptive Art?”

    Call for Registration Hybrid-Workshop: “What is Proprioceptive Art?” 9-11 March 2022 University of Duesseldorf https://proprioceptive.art What is Proprioceptive Art? Many works of art are predominantly visual or auditory in nature (visual arts such as drawing, painting, photography or performing arts like music). Only some art works (happenings, fluxus, performance) might also crucially involve the audience’s own physicality and thereby intentionally provoke the recipients’ perception of their own body, i.e. their proprioceptions. In the context of the workshop, we want to debate a radical question: Could there be works of art that are either primarily or predominantly proprioceptive in nature: i.e.,…

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  • Charting a future of autonomous, lifelike digital humans

    [This TechCrunch story provides an update on the work of digital humans startup Soul Machines. Particularly notable is a description of the company’s “Levels of Autonomous Animation Framework to Improve Human and Machine Collaboration” (from a free online whitepaper) and its vision of a future in which we all can create realistic digital twins of ourselves to interact with the world in our place. See the original story for four more images. –Matthew] Are lifelike digital humans the future of customer experience? By Rebecca Bellan February 14, 2022 Soul Machines, a New Zealand-based company that uses CGI, AI and natural…

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  • Call: 2nd International Conference on Interactive Media, Smart Systems and Emerging Technologies (IMET 2022)

    Call for Papers 2nd International Conference on Interactive Media, Smart Systems and Emerging Technologies (IMET 2022) Technical co-sponsored by IEEE Computer Society (Approval is Pending) 4-7 October 2022 Limassol (main conference) and Nicosia (exhibition), Cyprus https://imet.cyens.org.cy/ Submission deadlines: Paper: 8th March 2022 Short Paper, Poster: 16th April 2022 Demo: 16th May 2022 Workshop proposal: 15th April 2022 IMET is the flagship conference of CYENS Centre of Excellence (http://www.cyens.org.cy). CYENS constitutes a centre of excellence and a joint venture between the three public universities of Cyprus (University of Cyprus, Cyprus University of Technology and Open University of Cyprus), the Municipality of…

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  • Many prefer VR to in-person therapy, new research shows

    [This story from The Debrief expands on a press release from Edith Cowan University about a new study demonstrating advantages of interacting with an avatar rather than a nonmediated therapist; note the proposed explanations for the key finding in the indented paragraph before the “OUTLOOK…” heading. –Matthew] [Image: Source: Edith Cowan University] MANY PREFER VR TO IN-PERSON THERAPY, NEW RESEARCH SHOWS By Raquel Santos February 15, 2022 Is the idea of openly speaking in front of a therapist too intimidating for you? New research says that you’re not alone in this… and that many people feel more comfortable speaking to…

    Read more: Many prefer VR to in-person therapy, new research shows
  • Call: EC-TEL 2022: 17th European Conference on Technology Enhanced Learning

    CALL FOR PAPERS EC-TEL 2022: Seventeenth European Conference on Technology Enhanced Learning Theme: Educating for a new future: Making sense of technology-enhanced learning adoption Toulouse, France 12-16 September 2022 https://ea-tel.eu/ectel2022/cfp Submission deadlines: Research papers, Posters, and Demonstrations: 24 March 2022 – Mandatory submission of an abstract Workshops: 4 May 2022 – Submission of workshop proposal Doctoral Consortium: To be announced The European Conference on Technology-Enhanced Learning (EC-TEL) engages researchers, practitioners, educational developers, entrepreneurs, industry leaders and policy makers to address current challenges and advances in the field. EC-TEL 2022 will take place on 12-16 September 2022 in Toulouse, France with…

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  • Promise and peril: Education meets the metaverse

    [The Brookings Institution is a Washington, D.C. “nonprofit public policy organization” whose mission is “to conduct in-depth research that leads to new ideas for solving problems facing society at the local, national and global level.” Below is the first part of an extensive new Brookings policy brief on the promise and peril of the application of presence-evoking technologies of the ‘metaverse’ in education. See the original, unabridged version on the Brookings website and/or download it in pdf format. –Matthew] A whole new world: Education meets the metaverse By Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, Jennifer M. Zosh, Helen Shwe Hadani, Roberta Michnick Golinkoff, Kevin Clark,…

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  • Call: Special Issue of Publizistik on Human-Machine Communication

    Call for Papers Special Issue of Publizistik “Human-Machine Communication” https://www.springer.com/journal/11616/updates/19728790 Guest Editors: Katrin Etzrodt (TU Dresden), Peter Gentzel (Friedrich–Alexander University Erlangen–Nürnberg), Sonja Utz (Tübingen University), Sven Engesser (TU Dresden) Submission deadline: 30 April 2022 Smart AI-powered machines such as virtual agents, chatbots, and social robots are increasingly pervading everyday lives. They are increasingly able to perceive their environment and act autonomously. As a result, we are witnessing a profound change in which communication through technologies is extended by communication with technologies—machines turn into interlocutors. This implies several theoretical, empirical, and methodological challenges for communication and media research, such as applying,…

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  • Whitney Houston died 10 years ago, but her legacy and voice live on in Vegas hologram show

    [This story from USA Today makes clear that the latest version of a hologram concert is much more elaborate and compelling than a stage with a translucent projected image and soundtrack of a musical artist who has died. See the original story for a 30 second video and a large photo gallery. For more information see the BASE Hologram website and for information and tickets see the WhitneyHouston.com website. –Matthew] Whitney Houston died 10 years ago, but her legacy and voice live on in Vegas hologram show By Melissa Ruggieri February 11, 2022 “Good evening, everyone, and welcome. There’s going…

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  • Call: Thirteenth International Conference on The Image: Here Comes the Metaverse…

    CALL FOR PAPERS The Thirteenth International Conference on The Image – A conference organized by the Image Research Network at The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, United States Special Focus: Here Comes the Metaverse: Designing the Virtual and the Real Place: Online and The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, United States Format: A mix of live, pre-recorded, and in-person (at a scale that’s allowed) presentations and social interaction spaces. Dates: 28-29 September 2022 https://ontheimage.com/2022-conference https://ontheimage.com/2022-conference/call-for-papers Early Proposal deadline:  28 February 2022 Regular Proposal deadline:  28 June 2022 Late Proposal deadline:  28 August 2022 Founded in 2010, The…

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  • Greenpeace uses giant real-time portal to bring the Antarctic and penguins’ plight to heart of London

    [To raise awareness about the climate crisis, Greenpeace installed a large ‘Ice Portal’ in London’s Trafalgar Square, “bringing the remote and fragile Antarctic straight into the heart of a bustling city over 8,000 miles away.” Press coverage of the effort drew on this press release; follow the link under “NOTES” for a three-minute video and a large photo gallery. –Matthew] “It’s like looking through a window” – Giant portal to the Antarctic appears in London Greenpeace International 24 January 2022 London, UK – In a world-first, a towering portal has appeared in London’s iconic Trafalgar Square bringing the Antarctic to…

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  • New Publication: Expressive Space: Embodying Meaning in Video Game Environments

    New Publication: Expressive Space: Embodying Meaning in Video Game Environments Volume 4 in the series Video Games and the Humanities By Greg Whistance-Smith Publisher: De Gruyter Oldenbourg (January 2022) ISBN-10:‎ 3110723573 ISBN-13:‎ 978-3110723571 265 pages https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110723731 https://www.gregws.ca/expressive-space-launch/ https://www.amazon.com/Expressive-Space-Embodying-Environments-Humanities-ebook/dp/B09MPCVM8S/ Hi everyone, I’m excited to announce the release of my book, Expressive Space: Embodying Meaning in Video Game Environments. It approaches video games as built environments, places constructed for particular activities. Since we experience space from the position of our body, the book develops a framework for analyzing meaning in video game spaces by synthesizing five theories from the field of embodied cognition.…

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